Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The Madness of Mercury by Connie di Marco - #review #giveaway

San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti’s life is turned upside down when she becomes the target of the city’s newest cult leader, Reverend Roy of the Prophet’s Tabernacle. Driven out of her apartment in the midst of a disastrous Mercury retrograde period, she takes shelter with a client who’s caring for two elderly aunts. One aunt appears stricken with dementia and the other has fallen under the spell of the Reverend Roy. To add to the confusion, a young man claiming to be a long lost nephew arrives. The longer he stays, the more dangerous things become. Is the young man truly a member of the family? Can astrology confirm that? Julia’s not sure, but one thing she does know is that Mercury wasn’t merely the messenger of the gods—he was a trickster and a liar as well.

There are many levels to and facets of danger in The Madness of Mercury by Connie di Marco. Julia Bonatti, a practicing astrologist and newspaper columnist is getting some strong objection from a group of fanatical believers of the "Reverend Roy". In fact the whole area psychic (et al) community is receiving at best threats and at worst, attempted murder, from the Rev's cult. Ms. di Marco serves us up one of the most chilling stories of a cult spin out of control in recent memory.

The sheer volume of astrological terms and concepts in the beginning of the book did not work for me. But then, if I made it through the newspaper astrological puzzle during a day it was good for me. So the talk of 5th houses of happiness and planets either in retrograde or ascendance went over my head. As the action of the book picked up, though, the astrology side of things began to make more sense to me.

And Julia would be a good person to have in your corner when the chips are down. I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to go to visit the cult's compound north of the city to check on the welfare of an elderly sister of one of her clients. It was white knuckle, edge of my seat time from the time she left San Francisco until after the events that happened on her return.

Seeing as this is the first installment of the Zodiac Mysteries, all the signs point to my revisiting Julia and Co. in the future!

Connie di Marco is the author of the Zodiac Mysteries from Midnight Ink. She was fascinated by astrology at an early age and this was the inspiration that gave birth to Julia Bonatti, San Francisco astrologer and her newspaper column Ask Zodia. Writing as Connie Archer, she is also the author of the Soup Lover’s Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime. Connie lives in Los Angeles with her family and a constantly talking cat.

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(Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the author and publishers via Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links.)

Hi Kathleen - isn't astrology fascinating? I wanted to write about a character with an unusual occupation, so I figured what could be better than an astrologer? She'd run into all kinds of people with all sorts of problems! Best of luck!